


Cynosure

by sannlykke



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Hunter!Aomine, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 23:20:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5685406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sannlykke/pseuds/sannlykke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine should really know better, as a demon hunter, to jump into matters of the other world so recklessly. Too bad he never listens.</p><blockquote>
  <p><br/><i>None of what I’m looking at is real.</i> He’s been in the trade long enough to know what is behind the gorgeous facade of a <i>jorogumo</i>, and it’s not exactly pretty to think about.</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	Cynosure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BeautifulThief](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulThief/gifts).



>  
> 
> +[Jorogumo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jor%C5%8Dgumo) are spider demons that, in most legends, turn into beautiful women to lure their victims to their deaths.  
> +Kagami is [Byakko](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tiger_\(China\)), the mythological white tiger spirit who guards the west, who here functions as Kuroko's shikigami.
> 
> +the rating is mostly for several mentions of blood near the end. it's not very graphic but i suppose just to be safe orz.  
> +i also didn't expect this to become a 10k monstrosity and i am very, very sorry (ngl u can probably tell what kind of ending this will have just from the tags)
> 
>  
> 
> \+ cynosure (n.): a person or thing that attracts notice, esp because of its brilliance or beauty
> 
>  
> 
> this fic is for cassie bc i know she likes aohimu _(:'3

Even down here, trapped under layers of solid rock and probable enchantments, Aomine can hear the faint melody of a  _biwa_ coming from above.

Now that he’d had some time to mull it over, swinging into this place alone and on the basis of vague town rumors without telling anyone had been _really_ fucking stupid. He figures that Satsuki would be smart enough to realize what had happened by now -- though Aomine isn’t too sure what kind of help that would be, considering.

There would be youkai here, that was all he’d known before coming. He just hadn’t counted on it being a _jorogumo_.

Aomine doesn’t remember much between following the music into the cave, attacking the instrument that had been playing by itself and waking up bound to this damned, dripping-wet stone wall. The cavern is bare apart from a single lighted torch opposite him. He only needs the distinguishable white spider-silk wrapped around him to tell him all he needs to know about his assailant.

(Thankfully, a cursory glance around the room doesn’t yield any sign of human remains. Although that begs the question of _why_ he hasn’t been eaten yet, which is not something Aomine wants to wonder.)

He wiggles experimentally, and finds the silk bound _very_ tight. Then he tries to dig at the sticky material. That does not budge, either.

“Fuck,” he says, out loud. Then a glint of metal catches his eye.

 _My katana_. It had been discarded near the left of the cavern, where he could just barely make out a flight of stairs carved into the stone. The rest of his youkai-hunting weapons were nowhere to be seen, but just one is enough for a conscious hunter.

If only he could stay so -- the music is there to disorient him, Aomine is sure of it. He bites down on his lip hard until he could taste blood; the pain would keep him awake, but there is another purpose to the ritual. The liquid drips down to the binding beneath him, and that is where he focuses intensely, ignoring the fatigue of the past hours.

There is a sizzle, a surge of heat. The threads loosen around his chest, and Aomine finds himself able to maneuver his arms forward and outward, stretching until he thinks his body is on fire. It’s not every day he needs to exert so much spiritual energy on escaping, but unfortunately --

_Ttthhhssss --_

The bindings snap and slacken, and it takes all he has to stop himself from simply crashing into a heap on the floor. Aomine lowers himself down gingerly, feeling the ache in his muscles, and swipes away any remaining threads stuck on him. He’ll need to move fast, if every thread in this cavern is connected (which is all too likely.) 

Aomine spans the cavern in seconds, his hand closing around the grip of his katana just as he hears something move behind him. 

“Who’s there?”

He turns, but there is no one. It annoys him that he can’t quite tell how close the youkai would be; there is but a faint aura, simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, like the song still ringing in his head. Some kind of illusion -- Aomine shakes his head, giving the room one last look before he bolts up the steps.

“I’m surprised it took you so long, hunter.”

 _Fuck_. He freezes halfway up and looks up; there’s already someone blocking his way at the top of the steps. The flickering firelight draws thin shadows across the walls and his face. Well, half of it -- the other half is obscured by black hair. What Aomine _could_ see is the unnatural beauty that the man commands, sultry grey eyes and a playful smirk on his lips as he takes a step towards the hunter. 

 _None of what I’m looking at is real_. He’s been in the trade long enough to know what is behind the gorgeous facade of a _jorogumo_ , and it’s not exactly pretty to think about. Aomine stares hard as he points his weapon at his captor, unwavering. “Shut up. You’re gonna wish you hadn’t caught me, creature.”

“Oh?”

The music stops, and he is sent reeling back into the wall by a sudden gust of wind that also takes out the torch. He opens his mouth in shock as his feet give out beneath him on the slippery steps, but a hand yanks him forward onto the step above. In the gloom he can see a single grey eye studying him, uncomfortably close. “Now, you’ll want to be careful here -- “

“Get away from me!”

Aomine wrenches his arm away, slashing with his katana at the face he can’t see all that well anymore. He almost loses his balance again -- the steps are narrow, almost impossible for two to pass side-by-side -- but steadies himself, backing down quickly onto the cavern floor again. For a long moment nothing seems to move, except for the constant dripping of water. They are behind a waterfall, perhaps, or near some stream, the one he had followed...

Then the metallic smell of blood wakes him, and it’s coming at him fast.

He dodges to his left instinctively, gritting his teeth as the rock crumbles away from impact where he had been moments ago. The light being gone is an impediment, but he isn’t about to let that kill him. If he could just wound the demon again, he could probably get away, perhaps seal the cavern shut if he had enough energy left by then. 

Luck, though, does not seem to be on his side today. Aomine skids past the spot where he’d been bound, his eyes already adjusting to the lack of light. He cuts at the figure coming towards him -- but there is nothing there.

“?!”

Not even a split second is spared for him to regain his stance before he is thrown backwards into the wall. The clink of metal echoes in the din as his katana clatters to the ground away from him. His head rings with everything and nothing as he struggles to stand, but immediately there is a hand choking him, forcing him to look up. 

“You’re pretty good, for a human.” 

It’s not without some triumph that Aomine notices the unevenness of the other’s tone, that he’s still managed to deal some damage before he gets unceremoniously devoured. Except that’s not what happens, and he finds the hand around his neck pull away. He still can’t move, but the sound of his heavy breathing fills the cavern with echoes.

“Why don’t you just be done with it?”

 _Drip, drip_. A sigh rumbles throughout the complex from above, each stone wall shuddering in turn. He blinks, and there it is again, the torch flickering and illuminating their surroundings.  _This is no place for a human to be_. “Not many people can find this cave. How did you get here?”

“What, you’re gonna interrogate me now?” Aomine stares sullenly at the pretty face, contemplating how best to ruin it, and comes up empty. “You’re getting nothing from me, monster.”

Blood glistened in an ugly crimson line, drawing from the jorogumo’s left shoulder down to his chest. The scuffle had left quite a large tear in his clothes, and try as Aomine might, he finds it difficult to look away. There’s a flicker of annoyance in the youkai’s eye he manages to catch. “Is that how humans all talk nowadays? Don’t you get tired of being so rude -- ”

“Fuck you.”

“...Alright, then.”

 

Aomine wakes up from his second blackout of the week to the semi-familiar walls of an inn and white ceilings, and an even more familiar shriek of  _“Dai-chan, you’ve woken up!”_

“Ugh...Satsuki? What the hell -- “

So he’d dreamed it, then. He sits up, rubbing the back of his head where a tremendous throbbing is. Had he somehow rolled onto something in the night? Aside from Satsuki’s rapidly approaching aura, he can feel someone else in the house, someone familiar -- “Oi, you didn’t feed me something weird when I was sleeping again, did you?”

Satsuki stood over him, crossing her arms. _Uh-oh_. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten everything, Dai-chan. Running off without telling me first?”

“Look, that was a mistake -- wait, how am I back here then?”

“Because _someone_ isn’t a complete asshole, unlike you,” comes a voice from behind Satsuki. Aomine twitches as he slowly starts to comprehend who exactly is talking to him.

“Why the fuck is Bakagami here.”

“ _Dai-chan!_ ”

They glare at each other for all of five seconds before Satsuki shoves a spoonful of medicine into Aomine’s gaping mouth, effectively shutting him up for the moment. Kagami, for his part, sits down grudgingly and watches as Aomine chokes on the minty concoction. “Alright, from the start. You followed those rumors to find that waterfall north of town, didn’t you?”

“So what if I did?” He shoots another look at Kagami, who looks away. “It wasn’t like -- those were _substantial_ leads, Satsuki. And what’s Bakagami even doing here? His territory isn’t even around these parts.”

“In case you didn’t know,” Satsuki says firmly, cutting him off, “Kagamin has a brother. Who lives _here_. Unfortunately I didn’t find out until ... do you see where I’m getting at, Dai-chan?”

Aomine takes a deep breath, hoping he’ll actually wake up in the next three seconds. “Please don’t tell me it’s what I’m thinking.”

“It’s exactly what you’re thinking,” Kagami growls. “Why can’t you get your information straight for once? You could’ve --”

“That’d be my fault,” Satsuki mumbles with a sigh. Aomine gets no pleasure out of seeing Kagami’s expression change in a matter of seconds; if Kagami were here, so would Kuroko, and that just foretold hours of being chewed off. “I should’ve asked Tetsu-kun sooner -- “

“Speaking of which, where _is_ he?” 

“Right here,” says a quiet voice from the door, and they all jump. Kuroko is expressionless as he approaches the trio, sliding a sack off his shoulders; medicine, Aomine can see. “Assuming Aomine-kun still has all of his wits about him, I’d say he can take the blame fine instead of you, Momoi-san.”

“Hey!”

“He’s not wrong,” Kagami mutters, but his voice is softer now as he turns around. “How is he, Kuroko?”

Kuroko nods. “Just that one cut and a few burns here and there, nothing too serious, Kagami-kun. It was good we’d shown up when we did, though. Himuro-san seemed a little annoyed.”

“Wait, so you...?”

“Yes, they saved you,” Satsuki sighs and leans down, yanking the covers away. “Now go apologize, won’t you?” 

 

“...Sorry for bursting into your house uninvited.”

“Mm.”

“...For attacking you out of nowhere and trying to exorcise you?”

“This isn’t working,” he can hear Satsuki whisper despairingly to Kuroko, even as they sit all the way across the room. Kagami had gone off somewhere else, probably from all the embarrassment Aomine isn’t feeling.

There’s a sort of placid half-smile on Himuro’s face; it’s as beautiful as Aomine remembers, but with a predatory edge to it that makes him wish Satsuki hadn’t hidden all of his weapons before setting up this meeting. Kagami’s brother or not, this guy is still sending too many strange signals for Aomine to be fully relaxed around him. “Say, Momoi-chan, would you really mind if I eat your brother?”

“Don’t make jokes like that, Himuro-san,” Kuroko intervenes, his voice gently chastising. “He probably doesn’t taste all that great.”

“Oi, Tetsu, who’s side are you on anyway?”

Though at the very least, Himuro had acquiesced on letting him mark the cavern for navigational purposes. (”So that we can tell the rest of our friends to not bother you if they’re around,” Satsuki had chirped, but as Aomine saw it, that only meant _more_ bothering.) Presumably this would’ve happened anyway as Kagami had been talking about a visit for months. 

“You’re lucky Taiga approves of you,” Himuro tells him at the door. Whether or not this was meant to rile him up, Aomine raises an eyebrow at the statement. “You’re kind of alike, now that I think about it.”

“...Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?”

“What do you think?” 

“I don’t need anyone approving me, least of all Bakagami.”

White robes flutter in the wind as Himuro looks back at him a few steps away from the inn. Even in daylight -- and it’s only then Aomine realizes just how long he must’ve slept -- there is an ethereal quality to the jorogumo’s figure, particularly his face. There is no right for even a youkai to be that pretty; Kagami is clumsy and loud, completely unlike this person standing before him. Aomine swallows, and the familiar feeling of an inability to look away takes him again. But this time, the look on Himuro’s face is unreadable -- uncomfortable, even.

“I see.”

 _Damn him_ , Aomine thinks, watching him disappear into the forest without a trace.

 

 

A hunter’s job is a wanderer’s job -- that’s all the life Aomine’s ever known ever since he turned thirteen and ran away from his village. Satsuki had stayed at home until sixteen, and then she’d escaped to find him despite protests from her mother and stepfather. 

“You’d be dead without me,” she’d told him the first night they traveled together, when he’d tried to make her leave. After more than a few encounters and bad memories Aomine had to grudgingly concede that she was absolutely right. If she were able to track him down to the middle of nowhere, it would be useless to not use those skills for the betterment of humanity.

Still, after a while, they settled down to work in circuits, and it’s never a surprise for Aomine to find infestations in the same place months after he cleaned house. It might be boring, but it’s what keeps his stomach full, too.

“Dai-chan, can you help me get my daggers? I think I might’ve left them in the cart -- “

“Why can’t you do it yourself...” Yawning, Aomine rolls off the porch, parting a lazy salute to the old lady who owns the inn as she hobbles down the path towards the town centre. He hops down into his sandals, sauntering towards their covered cart parked in the stable. Aomine doesn’t really see why she would need anything; they’re only in this town to rest for a day, and neither of them had spotted much sign of youkai activity around. If anything, it seems a little _too_ clean.

He retrieves said daggers from underneath several books, turns around and nearly drops them.

“I didn’t think you’d be so surprised to see me.”

“The hell you’re doing out here,” Aomine replies, looking up at the banyan tree next to the stables. Himuro is perched there on a thin branch that doesn’t look like it could hold any sort of weight, watching him. A tortoiseshell pendant hangs inches from his chest, similar to one he remembers Kagami having -- Aomine wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the fact that it was probably how he’d sneaked up unnoticed. _Why is this happening to me._ “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen in love with me or something.”

“...You’ve got a really active imagination there, Aomine Daiki.”

The amused tone of voice makes him twitch, and he pointedly ignores Himuro as he walks back to the inn. _Fucking spiders_ , Aomine thinks as he slides the door open. “Satsuki, I got your -- “

“Look who’s here, Dai-chan!”

Aomine can only stare at the sight of his sister pouring tea for Himuro fucking Tatsuya, chattering away about Kagami and Kuroko’s exploits as if they were some sort of old friends. It isn’t as if they’re that close to the stupid tiger -- Satsuki would beg to differ, but when was she ever right about shit like this? -- and he sees no choice but to sit down and pretend none of them were there.

The jorogumo mostly nods and smiles, talking but not offering much in terms of conversation about himself. Maybe Satsuki doesn’t notice (or care), but Aomine finds himself increasingly suspicious of the whole ordeal. Kagami had pulled him aside last time and told him that Himuro didn’t actively deal with humans very often (and that _no, he_ doesn’t _eat people -- what the hell, Ahomine?_ ). This visit is proving to be quite the opposite. 

“Hey,” he interrupts, earning himself a warning Look from Satsuki and absolutely nothing from Himuro, “How’d you meet Kagami anyway? Like, you two aren’t ... _actually_ related, are you.”

“Would a hunter not know these things already?”

“Don’t mind Daiki,” Satsuki says pleasantly, nudging Aomine with her foot under the table. “He’s just...”

“I’m just what?” An exasperated sigh escapes his lips, half serious. He pulls Satsuki down to sit beside him. “Right, I know, but that doesn’t tell me why you’re here.”

“Kuroko-kun has asked me to relay any useful news I have.” Himuro looks at him evenly, and it almost makes Aomine squirm. Kagami he could rough up without much fear of repercussion (aside from Kuroko and Satsuki being general spoilsports about them chasing each other around town), but... “Although it seems like you won’t be interested anyway, hm?”

Aomine leans forward, frowning. “Who said I wasn’t?”

“Then,” Himuro’s smile takes on a slyer edge, and Aomine silently curses himself for completely falling for that, “You must have something in exchange, don’t you?”

“Aish, Himuro-san, I think I’ve told you a lot already, haven’t I?” Satsuki cut in with an exaggerated sigh. “Tell you what, I think I’ve got something just for you!”

“Hm?”

“Dai-chan...” She turns her fluttering eyelashes towards him -- it’s long since stopped working on Aomine, but nevertheless he has a bad feeling about all of this. “Wouldn’t you like to make a bit of extra cash?”

“Whatever.” _It couldn’t be as bad as what happened last time._

 

As it turns out, what Satsuki has in mind is _exactly_ what had happened last time.

“So,” Aomine says, raising an eyebrow as he prods the ground with the tip of his katana. “Are you really this bored, or is there something else to this arrangement you’re not telling me?”

“...It does get kind of boring after a couple centuries, yeah.”

Kuroko had told Satsuki about a clearing in a woods, and she’d left them there (”I’ll be back in half an hour, don’t burn yourselves out too much!”) after drawing out a large enough arena for them. Sometimes Aomine wondered if she ought to be the one handling all the actual exorcising with the multitude of spells she knows (not that he’d tell it to her face.) Aomine mostly just needs a blade to hack his enemy to pieces, an easy expulsion spell or two -- most of what he’s faced lately have been low-level spirits, and Kagami isn’t always around for him to try new skills on. So he isn’t exactly annoyed by the request of _a sparring partner_ , when it comes down to that.

In fact, he finds himself completely itching for a good fight.

“Right.” He raises his weapon, smirking. “I’m a lot more awesome when I’m not tied up, you know.”

This time there’s something genuine about Himuro’s grin that catches Aomine off guard -- though he recovers in time when he notices the other getting into a familiar stance. “I’m sure of that.”

 

Satsuki comes back from her errands to find neither of them standing.

“Don’t tell me you actually tried to kill each other,” she sighs disapprovingly as she tries to yank Aomine off the ground. He does not budge, instead opting for groaning loudly. “Come _on_. I know you’re fine, otherwise you’d be out cold.”

“Am not,” he grunts, pointing vaguely at the bruise starting to form on his left side. But he gets up anyway, wincing slightly. “Satsuki, you should -- ah, never mind.”

He ignores the questioning glances she’s giving him, and instead walks to where Himuro is resting underneath a maple tree. If he had thought of himself having an unfair advantage of carrying magic-repelling charms, it became quite apparent through their sparring that such measures did not stop Himuro from simply punching him in the face.

Aomine stares down, at the cuts (shallower, this time) on his arms, the bruises blossoming along his collarbone. And it’s _unfair_ \-- how beautiful he still looks, even in this state. Aomine holds out a hand, unsure. “Are you gonna be offended if I told you you fight like a human?”

“When have you ever cared about if I were offended or not?” The wry expression doesn’t leave his face as he takes Aomine’s hand and pulls himself up, wobbling slightly before Aomine sighs and steadies him with his other hand. And then he realizes just how uncomfortably close they are to each other. “...Thank you, Daiki.”

“Yeah, um.” He turns around, finding that Satsuki has already abandoned them again (if she’d said anything, he supposes he’d been too busy thinking to hear.) “You gotta tell me -- her -- whatever the hell it is you were gonna, it’s getting a little late.”

“I know.” And then, out of the blue, “I don’t suppose Taiga has told you, about that.”

“About what?”

The strange feeling in his stomach doesn’t go away when Himuro looks up at him, calmly, and says, “I used to be human, you know.”

 

“Are you sure there isn’t a way to change back? Like, it’s a curse, isn’t it?”

Satsuki is pretending to not listen in -- he can tell by the way she’s scrubbing vigorously in the hallway, at a spot that isn’t even dirty. Even after a hot bath both of them are tired; it feels almost _nice_ to ache all over, for him. Familiar. 

Himuro sits a bit away from him, his bare legs swinging off the porch. He likes doing that, Aomine has come to realize. His newer wounds have already closed, and Aomine can only tell they once existed by the faint pinkish bumps where they ran. They would be completely gone by the next morning. Under the light of the lanterns, however, he can see old scars across Himuro’s back from where the towel doesn’t cover his pale skin. Thin white lines not unlike a spider’s web crisscross the nape of his neck, and an even older, thicker, deeper scar that looked as if it runs down the length of his back. Those, too, are familiar -- he knows he probably has more than a few scars, though he’s never bothered to check. But strong as he is, Aomine is still completely human, and he knows it would have taken something extraordinary to leave those on a youkai’s body. He doesn’t remember seeing anything close to it on Kagami, now that he thinks about it (then again, it’s not like he’s ever looked at him that closely.)

“Even if there were,” Himuro says, so quietly Aomine almost thought he’d imagined it, “I don’t think I care much for going back. It's been almost five hundred years.”

“Well,” Aomine begins, his mind beginning to blank out. “Um. How did this even happen? Wait, I mean -- ”

“Like you said, a curse.” He’s looking back at Aomine, but his expression is hidden beneath the veil of hair that always seems to cover his left eye. By this point Aomine _is_ vaguely curious about what’s underneath, with only the last ounce of common sense in him preventing him from just reaching out and flipping away those black locks. “I don’t remember most of it, actually. Sorry to disappoint.”

“I didn’t mean -- “

“I should leave now.” There’s a weird, jittery sort of edge to his voice, something Aomine finds hard to describe. He stands up, the towel crumpling up in a heap at the edge of the porch. Aomine swallows dryly at the split second he gets to see the entirety of the scar (he wonders, now, if that’d had anything to do with the curse, but the words are stuck in his throat) before Himuro walks forward and seemingly pulls another white robe from thin air, the translucent fabric almost glowing in moonlight. “Mutsunokuni is a large area to be searching, you should get some rest.”

“Mm,” replies Aomine, too absorbed in the scene before him to be listening until it occurs to him that Himuro had almost sounded like he cared. “Uh, yeah, I’ll go do that.”

(The image doesn’t disappear from his mind even as he climbs into bed, listening to the chirping of summer insects and the rush of wind outside.)

 

 

Aomine is very good at a number of things, including eradicating youkai, escaping responsibilities and catching crayfish. Scaling cliffs, surprisingly, is not one of his strong suits.

“I would’ve beat you if this had been a tree,” he grumbles, scooting backwards as to not be too close to the edge. From this vantage point he could just barely see the waterfall; further out is the small cluster of buildings that make up the town, completely surrounded by forest except on its southern border. Mount Osore looms in the background, marking the northernmost extent of Aomine’s travels. “I saw you cheat, by the way. Extra arms, _really_?”

“How is it cheating if we didn’t include that in the rules?”

“ _Totally_ unfair,” Aomine mutters, closing his eyes.

He can almost hear the smirk in Himuro’s voice as he replies, “Don’t expect life to be fair, Aomine Daiki.”

“Yeah, yeah.” But he feels _great_ , being up so high, and it pretty much makes up for the competition. Aomine stretches his arms, stealing a glance at his companion. Himuro is looking at the mountain, the wind sweeping his hair to the side. Even a virtuous man would have found it difficult to look away, even now when Aomine is fairly certain of his safety. “Did you always live here?”

“I suppose so.” Their eyes meet when he speaks, Himuro’s wide in a way that draws Aomine’s complete attention. There is something wistful in them, transcending ages, a look that has likely been there for much longer than Aomine has been alive. “I can only travel where I can still see the mountain. Though...”

“Though?”

“I remember other places I do not recall visiting. A large building, much larger than the ones you have in your town.”

“Large building ... a castle?“ Aomine turns his gaze towards the mountain, squinting hard. There are none nearby as far as he knows, and in any case the only one he has seen is the one in Kyoto, a months’ journey away. “Huh. Or it might be a temple, there’s loads of those around. Satsuki might know, if you could describe it.”

“I wouldn’t want to inconvenience her,” Himuro replies, his hand brushing against Aomine’s as he reaches up to pat his hair back in place. Past him would’ve laughed at the proposal that he would one day enjoy touching a youkai, Aomine knows -- but none of it matters if it is true. He bites his lips, remembering the blood that isn’t there. Scarce had a year and a half gone by and here he is, hanging out and _enjoying_ hanging out with a jorogumo.  _What the hell’s gotten into me?_  “After all, it might not even be there anymore. Daiki?”

“Nothing,” he says hastily, wiping at an invisible speck on his face with a hand. “Something got in my eye. And yeah, uh, that might be true.”

“Thank you, though.” There is no mistaking the genuineness of his smile this time as he leans in. Aomine grins back, slightly confused and very aware of the proximity of their faces. If Himuro is doing this on purpose, it’s working just fine. Yet there is a nagging feeling in the back of his head that that’s not entirely the case, a wish that perhaps both of them are liking this equally. “It’s the first time anyone’s offered.”

“Uh. I mean, no problem.” He shrugs, drawing his legs back in. “Let’s go back down, it’s kind of late.”

(He tries to ignore Himuro’s curious staring as he starts to descend, faster than before, and this time he is first to reach the ground.)

 

 

“I’m _telling_ you, Aominecchi, I really have no idea!” Kise throws his hands up for the third time of the day, and the _kannushi_ of the shrine raises one bushy eyebrow at them from the other end of the hallway. None of the other attendants even bother to look over anymore, preferring to converse animatedly about some village happening or another. Aomine buries his hands into his face -- really, what had he been expecting? “Why are you so interested in that anyway? Kitsune can’t like, you know, turn fully human. There’s always a catch. I’m sure it’s the same with other youkai.”

Aomine chews on his lips. “I met someone with...a problem.”

“Oh?” There’s a mischievous twinkle in the kitsune’s eyes that he’s come to know all too well. It’s probably for good that Satsuki hadn’t insisted on accompanying him to Kaijou this time. “I heard some _interesting_ news from Kurokocchi when he stopped by two weeks ago. Ah, it’s really been too long! He hasn’t stopped by in--“

“Just get on with it, Kise.”

Kise throws an indignant look at him, which he promptly ruins by fluttering those goddamned eyelashes. Aomine looks away, pink in the face. “Don’t even try that on me.”

“You know it’s working,” he laughs, though a more serious expression settles on his face as Aomine, for once, doesn’t respond by punching him in the shoulder or yelling profanities. “Alright, I think I know what’s wrong with you now.”

“Nothing’s wrong with _me_.”

“ _Everything’s_ wrong with you, Aominecchi. You weren’t even trying your best when I ambushed you. That’s not cool.”

“Sorry,” Aomine grumbles, pursing his lips. “I don’t know, Kise. I know shit like that happens, but I’ve just never met anyone who it actually happened _to._  Until now, I guess.”

“What, and you feel responsible now?” 

“Why the hell would I feel responsible for something I didn’t do?”

“Because you sure sound like you do right now. Look,” Kise grabs his shoulders firmly, and Aomine finds himself staring into the uncomfortably determined face of his other childhood best friend. “Go ask Kagamicchi about it then, if you really want to figure out your little crush.”

Aomine closes his eyes, heaving a sigh. “Fine. I’m telling Bakagami you sent me, though. This is fucking--wait, _what_?”

Kise smiles at him innocently. “Don’t tell me that’s not what it is. I _know_ you, Aominecchi. And you --”

“I don’t have a fucking crush on Bakagami’s brother.”

"But you enjoy hanging out with him, yes?"

He can feel his cheeks color, which is _bad_. Bad, bad, bad. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything? He doesn't ask me stupid questions like you do, at least."

“Which brings me to my second point.” Kise lets go, eyeing him with a mixture of exasperation and concern. It’s not a common sight on a face that’s just meant to be beautiful -- Aomine shakes his head, thinking of too many faces at once. “Don’t let that get over your head, stupid. Kagamicchi’s brother or not, you can’t predict what youkai think. That’s just ... how it is.”

 _That’s a fine roundabout way of telling me to be careful_ , Aomine groans inwardly, but doesn’t voice it as he dodges Kise’s newly launched tickle attack. _Right. I’m not worried about this at all._

 

 

He finds that he’s memorized the path by heart.

There’s not a lot of disturbance to the landscape since the last time he came. Aomine figures he’s probably still the only one who uses this path near the river; the townspeople do not dare approach, and those who do visit the destination at the very end tend to not use corporeal sorts of transportation. Though this is still the first time _he’s_ the one visiting without being asked.

He hacks away the overgrown branches, following the sound of water and the melody of the _biwa_. It’s not half-bad now that he doesn’t have to be on high alert through the whole process.

So he might be a little arrogant, but _so what_ \-- he isn’t the only one, judging by the once-secret door hanging wide open for him to simply stride in.

“What brings you here today, Aomine Daiki?”

“Cut that out,” Aomine sighs, plopping himself down on the bare stone ground. Himuro does not spare him a look as he continues playing, sharp, melancholic notes dancing off the strings. He looks a little thinner; Aomine frowns, seeing the shadow of a new scar peeking out from under his collar. There is no magic in the song this time, but it’s already starting to grate on him. “What did you do, pick a fight with the daitengu the next mountain over?”

_Thwang!_

The abrupt stop makes his head ring; Himuro gives him a look that suggests he may have been right, after all. “Just a minor scuffle.”

“Hah? Satsuki can take a look at it, if you want.“

“I can take care of myself. It’s fine.” 

 _Yeah, right._  Aomine bites back the response, opting instead to lean forward and confirm his suspicions. 

The air wavers around him, and he freezes.

“Daiki?”

“You...” He sits back down, slowly, pulling his hand away from his weapon. “Look, maybe it’s dumb for me to say this, but you really should eat something. You’re, like ... I don’t know how much energy you use keeping this up, but it’s kind of, uh, not working.”

“...” Himuro lays down the biwa carefully, to his side. His collar slides a little onto his shoulder as he does so; perhaps it’s deliberate, but this time Aomine doesn’t even bother being discreet. The soft light from the fire in the next room throws shadows over his skin, the pendant hanging from his neck catching alight. There is a glimmer of something there Aomine had not seen before, and he realizes he very much wants to see what it is. “Funny hearing a hunter say that.”

“I mean, as long as it’s not  _people_.”

“In no way does that concern y-- ”

Aomine kisses him.

He hadn’t meant for it to happen -- he’d been trying to not think about what he’d just seen, but Himuro had also definitely heard what he’d said. Aomine had been paying far, far too much attention to realize the magnetic pull of that particular action. They stay that way, frozen, for a few long moments, until Aomine collapses onto the ground from teetering too far in.

(His body feels light, too light, and he hates that he can still taste remnants of the earth through his lips, the tinge of rust forcing him back from static shock. If his soul is still intact, he doesn’t feel that way anymore.)

“Shit,” he says, after he pulls away, his heart beating too fast and his instincts screaming for him to _run_ , far far away. But his feet seem stuck to the ground. “I.”

“You -- “ Himuro seems as surprised as he is, moving a hand to his mouth, his eyes wide. “Daiki -- “

His name washes over him, breaking waves on a jagged shore, and he awakens. Aomine leaps up and dashes out the door, footsteps echoing down the stone walls long after he has gone.

 

“You go anywhere when I was gone?”

“Not exactly,” Satsuki replies, not looking at him. Her face seems unusually solemn as she continues penning a letter; from where he sits Aomine can’t see who it’s meant for, but there is a definite ‘don’t even ask’ aura surrounding her. “I hope you didn’t get into any more trouble while you were out, Dai-chan.”

“Hey! That...that’s not, I didn’t get into anything. I’m going to bed.”

He spends the rest of the night thinking about hair as dark as the jet black of her brushstrokes, his face burning and realizing with a not insignificant amount of horror that Kise had been all too right.

 

 

Seirin isn’t far from his hometown, which is why Aomine rarely, if ever, travels in that particular direction. He’d first met Kuroko on the road wandering far from anywhere familiar. Kagami had appeared sometime later, always shouting and knocking things over, though the two had settled into a seamless routine when he saw them again a year later. In any case, Kagami’s face is usually enough to scare away any potentially troublemaking spirits.

“Are you here for a rematch?” Kagami says as soon as Aomine slams the door open, casting a long glance at everything before him. Kuroko doesn’t seem to be present, although that’s something he can never be sure of.

“Why would I? I won last time.” He kicks off his sandals and strides into the room, then sits himself down on one of the mats laying about. “I need to ask you something about Himuro.”

Kagami frowns; beyond that, Aomine can see a guarded look in his eyes that is rarely present. Well then. “What is it?”

“How did he like...“ He trails off for a moment, searching. The memory of the kiss flashes across his mind, and he shakes his head. “How did it happen. The curse.”

“Who the hell told you about that?”

“He told me himself.” 

The indignant huff that Kagami produces does not fool Aomine. “Even so, why don’t you just ask him yourself? You _know_ where he is, and I’m all the way over here most of the time and I can’t -- ”

“ _I_ can’t.” This time, even as he keeps his usual tone of voice, he can’t look Kagami in the eye. “Look, I dunno alright? Might’ve pissed him off a bit, so I just figured.”

“...Right, that’s not it.” Kagami frowns; Aomine observes him playing with the string around his neck, and he feels something tighten inside. “He would’ve told me.”

“I suppose even Kagami-kun can’t see it,” comes a soft voice from behind. This time Aomine jumps a little less, though Kuroko’s expression puts him once again in his place. There’s something terrifying to be said about how calm he looks in the midst of them all. “Or doesn’t want to. In any case, Aomine-kun, I thought you would’ve known better.”

“I do know better, Tetsu.” He sucks in air, clutching the sides of the mat underneath him tightly. “It was fucking stupid and I just want to know, so I can get the hell away from this mess -- ”

“Oi, Aomine, what did you actually do? Kuroko?” 

“...Aomine-kun kissed Himuro-san and ran away.”

“You _what_?” exclaims Kagami, almost at the same time Aomine yells “How the hell did you know about _that_?”

“Momoi-san has been exceedingly worried about you,” Kuroko answers, a reply within a reply. _Of course Satsuki found out, somehow_. Aomine feels the burn in his cheeks, an angry sort of feeling that doesn’t want to go away. _It wasn’t my fault_. “Judging by the fact that you are still intact, Aomine-kun, I don’t suppose you’ve gone back.”

“That was... “ Kagami’s eyes are boring holes into his head, he can feel, but he refuses to give in. “It just _happened_ , okay? I don’t...I let my guard down. That’s it. I’ll go apologize.”

"Well.” Kuroko stalls meditatively, putting a hand on Kagami’s twitching, agitated tail, “It’s kind of more than that. You remember the _Nihon Ryouiki_ , I’m sure, Aomine-kun?”

Aomine closes his eyes. “...Might’ve skimmed it once. What’s this got to do with anyth -- ”

“You live long enough,” Kagami cuts in, reluctantly now, and Aomine can almost _hear_ the pain in his voice. He shudders, finally looking up, and immediately wishes he hadn’t. “You get yourself written into one of these human things. You have _no_ idea what you’ve just done, have you?”

 

 

 

**The Thirty-Sixth Tale, The Karmic Fates of a Guardian Spirit and Human Thief**

_In the third year of Emperor Seiwa’s reign there was mass hysteria concerning the spring floods at Heian-kyo._

_The wise Emperor, fearing for his peoples’ lives, held a service at Kiyomizu-dera. Upon hearing the pleas Heaven sent down the guardian of the city, the Azure Dragon, to quell the waters. Although the oldest of the four Guardians, this was the first time he entered the mortal realm._

_Peace was restored to the land, and its people flourished. The Dragon, curious about the ways of this world, requested a period of time to observe. Heaven, pleased with his work, granted this request._

_He lived a few years inside the Imperial City, as the human scholar Yukimura-no-Ryuu. There are little accounts of this time of his life except the production of the fabled Poems from the Sunny Spring, which was lost shortly after._

_Concerned with growing discontent of the people after several years, Yukimura-no-Ryuu traveled to the outskirts of the Imperial City to inspect the living conditions. On the way to an inn he was accosted by a thief, who cut his sleeve with a knife. Only when he revealed his divinity did the thief drop to the ground in shame and awe, begging for forgiveness._

_The city records show no name for the thief, but the scholar took him on as a disciple and traveled far and wide, and they developed a close bond. When time came for him to ascend again the reformed thief begged him to stay. Torn between his duty and his love, Yukimura-no-Ryuu chose the former. His companion, grief-stricken, struck him in the back with a sword. For this great offense he was sent to Makahadoma to suffer for eternity._

_Because the thief had been his disciple, the Azure Dragon was stripped of his divinity and forced to serve a penance as a demon under Mount Osore. The other Guardians felt this unjust and pleaded his case with Heaven, citing that his love had not been impure. Heaven decreed a grace period of five hundred years - that only a human’s love may free him from his trials, but only if he does not in his time in the mortal realm consume the impurities of human flesh._

_Some say he is still in Mount Osore biding his time, some say he has long since broken the decree. Whatever the case, this story survives until this day._

 

 

 

For a long time after the last words left Kuroko’s mouth Aomine does not speak. Carefully the young onmyouji lays the bound book aside, sighing; Kagami does not look at either of them, his head bowed as if deep in thought. 

“...That’s not all there is to it, is there?” And then, remembering, he continues, “What happens after five hundred years?”

“Then he’s stuck like that permanently,” Kuroko says, and both of them try to ignore Kagami twitching. “Unfortunately this is something neither I nor Kagami-kun can help with, being that our contract forbids it. Aomine-kun ... ”

“He doesn’t remember,” Kagami murmurs, the creases on his forehead deepening. “Not all of it, anyway. The part about being human -- that’s the extent of things.“

“Is that why you’re here?” Aomine asks, his voice barely above a whisper. He had heard this story before, in different incarnations, in Satsuki’s bright voice as she’d pored over old texts to prepare for their journeys. Never would he have guessed it would come to affect him in this way. “To make him remember?”

“You know the original purpose of our contract, Aomine-kun. To help those in need.” Kuroko sighs, looking up. “But yes, in a way -- Himuro-san did not initially remember Kagami-kun, but at least Kagami-kun has succeeded in reestablishing their friendship in this life. As for the rest ... ”

_“Aominecchi!”_

“Kise?!”

The door slams open yet again, and a panting Kise emerges from outside, his eyes wide with excitement. Aomine stands up, as does Kagami. “I’m supposed to bring you back, Aominecchi. It’s an emergency, but Momoicchi was _really_ vague when she summoned me but she looked scared and I just, ah! Kagamicchi, er, I hope I didn’t break the trees when I landed, you know how that -- “

“Kise-kun, please slow down. I think it’s best to talk about it on the way,” Kuroko says, glancing at the other two with worry. “If it’s an emergency like you said.”

 

“Satsuki!”

The barriers around the inn are intact, though that does not stop Aomine from jumping off Kise’s back before he’s even touched the ground, kicking off his shoes even as he nearly trips over a fallen branch. He wrenches the door open, but there is nobody inside the room they share. The room is in disarray, books strewn about all over the ground; he can still feel traces of her aura hovering about, but only faintly. “What the hell happened here?”

“I don’t -- she _was_ here when I left!” Kise drags a hand across his face, slumping against the wall. “I should’ve stayed ... “

“No, Kise-kun, you did the right thing.” But the concerned look on Kuroko’s face and the way he plays at the rosary on his wrist only serve to deepen the worry in Aomine’s stomach. “Momoi-san is very capable of defending herself, so perhaps it was something else. Aomine-kun, did you get in trouble with anyone lately? Humans, demons, anyone ...”

“Hah? No, I haven’t hunted for a month, actually -- “ Aomine throws his gaze at the path leading into the forest, pursing his lips. “I wonder if ... “

“I was thinking the same thing,” Kagami puts in, frowning. “Maybe Tatsuya saw or heard something. I’ll go check.”

“I’m going with you.”

“Kagami-kun, let him,” Kuroko says resolutely, just as Kagami opens his mouth to protest. “I can search down here with Kise-kun, in case she’s just gone to get something in town.”

 _You better not do anything weird_ , Kagami’s eyes seem to say, but he just huffs instead and turns around. “Alright. Get up here, then, Ahomine.”

 

It would be a lie to say Aomine had never envied the ability of spirits to fly, though he knows it come with a whole slew of other things he’s certain he’ll never want. Kagami’s strides are long and powerful as he rushes past trees and shrubbery, following the stream towards its origins at the top of the mountain. Aomine clings to his back, fingers dug deep in white-and-black fur. The wind whooshes past his face, reminding him it is again close to winter.

His mind is a jumble of thoughts too much to bear, _Satsuki, the legend, five hundred years ..._

“Are you still mad at me?” He shouts, hoping the wind won’t carry his words away. “Kagami -- ”

He slows, suddenly, and Aomine has to hold on with all his strength to not fly out. “Aomine.”

“What?”

“I just,“ Kagami lets out a sigh, and the ground trembles beneath them. “I don’t want you giving him false hope. That’s ... can you do that for me, Aomine? He doesn’t even _remember_ \-- ”

“How do you know he doesn’t?” Aomine whispers, clutching at the fur tightly. He buries his face into Kagami’s pelt, closing his eyes. _No, neither I nor you know. But ..._  he clenches his teeth, looking up once more. “How do you know how _I_ feel about this, Bakagami? You didn’t even _ask_.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Look, Kagami,” Aomine says, licking his suddenly very dry lips. “I’m not gonna say this twice, but I lo--”

A loud crash up ahead cuts him short, reverberating through the entire forest. They stay frozen to the spot for all of a second before Kagami is off again, too fast this time for Aomine to even make out the blur of scenery around him. But now he, too, is distracted.

_I can feel her, getting closer, closer --_

_Why are you there?_

Kagami crashes through the foliage into a clearing five minutes from the cave, trees felling behind them. The first thing Aomine sees once he’s regained his senses is Satsuki slumped against a banyan tree. Even with his very human nose, Aomine can smell the blood in the air. “ _Satsuki!_ ”

“Dai-chan...?” She looks up, coughing; thankfully nothing comes out. Aomine rushes over, and she pushes herself off the ground, wobbling. There is blood on her side, a smallish bruise forming on her forearm, but otherwise she seems intact. “I’m -- don’t worry about me, I’m fine, but you -- “

He hugs her tightly, though not so tight as to press her wounds even more. “Fuck, what the hell happened, Satsuki?”

“There were -- “ she pushes away, her eyes wide in panic as she pulls him towards the path. Kagami follows them, hesitantly. “Hunters, seven or eight of them. I’ve never seen them before. They knocked on my door, asking for directions to the waterfall. I told them I didn’t know.”

“And?”

“They left, but I didn’t have a good feeling about it. Ki-chan wasn’t too far away, so I called him up to get you.” Aomine helps her climb up onto Kagami’s back as they continued. “I’m so sorry, Kagamin, Dai-chan, I followed them. I thought I could reason with ... “

The sinking feeling in his stomach would not stop even as Kagami breaks through the last line of trees. He shakes his head, breathing ragged as he spots the door hanging open, in splinters. _I should never have gone._  “No, Satsuki ... I’m going to _kill_ them.”

But the forest is still, very still.

“No ... “ He can hear Kagami behind him, his voice breaking; none of those thoughts run through Aomine’s mind as he runs past the door, past the room where he’d heard the music, each gossamer curtain he pushes away stained with things he does not want to know. 

He comes across the first body that way, almost slipping on the blood pooling underneath. Aomine blanches when he sees that the man looked as if he’d merely tripped and fallen on a stalagmite, then continues down the ever-darkening tunnel. Kagami’s footsteps echo behind him, the vibrations ever present and growing louder.

 _I can still see torches there_ , he thinks to himself. _I can still see. I can still, I can ..._

The tunnel opens up to its last room, a vast chamber with a pool of spring water that feeds the waterfall outside. An otherworldly glow seems to emanate from its very walls -- _no wonder_ , Aomine thinks grimly as he stops and stares, _people think this is the entrance to Hell._

Then he looks down, and sees a familiar form laying face-down on the ground.

_“Himuro!”_

This time he gets no answer except the echo of his voice, thousands of screams that ring inside his mind. Aomine slides down from the sticky steps, ignoring the implications of such, past another body, and then another, until he reaches the water’s edge. There is blood -- too much of it.

“Hey! You -- “ Trembling, he touches the wet fabric of Himuro’s clothes; then, with a surge of strength, he turns him over and leans in. However slow it is, he can still hear a heartbeat. “Please, I’m ... I’m here.“

“Daiki...?”

He feels Himuro’s fingers tighten around his arm. Aomine kneels down, shifting his body so that they could see face-to-face. At this point Aomine cannot even tell how much of the blood is his anymore, and he fights the urge to scream. “Why didn’t you run?”

“Is that really the first thing you’re asking me?” Himuro laughs, softly; his voice has taken a raspy quality to it, as if something had ruptured inside. “I couldn’t have. I thought ... I wasn’t paying attention.“

“What?”

“I left the door open,” he murmurs, and then, “Ah, please don’t think this was your doing, Daiki. I was foolish -- I thought I could take all of them on. Two escaped, I think.“

“No,” Aomine says, feeling strangely light. “No, it was. I shouldn’t have ... that was fucking stupid, running away, wasn’t it? But it doesn’t matter now. We’ll get you help, just don’t move. I’ll carry you. Kagami’s gonna be here any second now.”

“Daiki.” Grey eyes look up at him, mesmerizing; Aomine realizes this is the first time he is looking into both of his eyes. He feels Himuro’s fingers reach up and trace the curve of his face, a whisper of silk against skin. “It’s too late for that, I’m afraid.”

“No! It’s not -- you’re still here, aren’t you?” He feels Himuro shift beneath him, pushing himself up with a grip on his shoulder, until he feels shallow breathing on the other side of his neck. Aomine feels the blood drying and caking on his fingers, his hands, but he does not let go. “Hey, you still listening to me?”

“Of course.” And then, “Thank you.”

“There’s nothing to -- “

“I remember now,” Himuro says, his voice barely above a mumble now, but Aomine can hear every word in the still air of the cavern. “When you asked me, how much I remember from the past. The castle, the roads, the temple ... Taiga cried, I think, when it happened. It’s very strange knowing all of this when you are about to die.”

His hold tightens around Himuro’s arms. “Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true.” Aomine could _feel_ his smile, and he shivers. There is a crash of sound in the distance, shouting; he wonders what the hell is taking Kagami so long. Himuro coughs, his voice fading with each syllable. “Daiki, if I may...”

He knows.

This time, the kiss is mutual -- Aomine tastes metal, salt, a sliver of the past. His hair is wet from water dropping from above, and they run in rivulets down his face as he sees colors from the pain of scrunching his eyes too hard. He touches Himuro’s face; it, too, is wet, though whether from blood or tears or springwater he cannot tell anymore.  _Please, oh gods --_

_“Goodbye.”_

Aomine feels the hand holding his slacken. Numbly he continues to hold on, even as they have broken apart, his fingers digging into the other’s back. There is nothing apart from the gurgling of water, and the soft glow of the cavern walls like a feverish dream. Then, footsteps.

Kagami’s face appears over the ledge, pale, and Aomine even in his daze could see streaks of red slashed across his face. _So, some of them_ were _still alive_. “...Tatsuya?”

“Kagami -- “

Behind him, Satsuki bites back a little gasp.

Aomine does not see it at first, his eyes having already adjusted to the glow. Then, brighter, he sees it coming from behind Himuro’s. Confused, he reaches out, only for the light to become searing, blinding, and in the resulting panic he lets go.

“What in the...?”

He falls back on his behind, wincing, a hand shielding his eyes. When the light recedes he peeks out from beneath his fingers, cautiously at first, then with everything he has. In the background he can hear Kagami’s own sudden inhaling, the sound sharp against his ear. “ _Oh..._ ”

_“Aomine Daiki.”_

Sometimes it is easy to forget he deals regularly with a god, but on the other hand Kagami had never shown that particular form to him before. Aomine is sure Kuroko has seen it, and is perhaps all that more aware for that. But to him who had seen and cut down countless minor spirits and demons before, the concept of heaven has always been but a distant concern. That is the work of priests and monks, not hunters.

The spirit fills the entire room, the coils of its scaly, translucent body uncountable. Its soft blue light is in reality no more bright than the cavern itself, but the walls almost seem to dim in its presence. 

Aomine scrambles to his knees, not even noticing his nails digging through the skin of his palms. It would be sacrilegious to look away now, but even then words refuse to form in his mouth. “I...”

The dragon’s eyes are a soft grey-blue of the evening sky. Aomine feels no fear as it approaches him, its long whiskers tickling his skin. There is a certain kind of solemnity in this face that had not been there before, but it is familiar all the same, down to the single jet-black scale shimmering at the corner of its right eye.  _In this lifetime, before five hundred years are up ..._  

_“I will see you again.”_

“Yes,” Aomine breathes, a clean, fresh scent of snow casting away the decaying rust of the cavern floor. He does not dare move even as the dragon turns aside, towards the others. There seem to be words passed between their gazes -- Aomine cannot tell what it is from where he kneels, but he can most certainly read the smile on Kagami’s lips and the tears on Satsuki’s face.

_In some lifetime, this one, the next one, I will see you again._

The light shudders, expanding, crystallizing, setting the cavern ablaze. Snow is falling -- no, not snow, he thinks as one of the objects lands in his now open palms, and around him. _Scales_. Aomine’s eyes never leave its jeweled serpentine form even as his consciousness gives out and he falls forward, slumping over the ghost of something that was once there.

 

 

 

**three years later**

 

 

 

“Aominecchi, hurry up!”

“Yeah, we’re gonna be late for the sunrise if you keep at this...”

Groggily he pushes open the door, stifling a yawn with the other hand. There aren’t many more things Aomine hates more than waking up early. And yet here he is. Kyoto is beautiful in spring, he gives it that, but all Satsuki could talk about was watching the sun rise from Mount Hiei. Worst of all, the others had _agreed_.

“I’m gonna start banning your ass from my presence if you keep at that,” he groans as Kise half-pushes him out, barely dressed, towards where the others are gathered. “ _Kise_. I can walk, you know.”

“Hmph! Then start walking, won’t you?” Kise huffs, leaving him as he bounds towards where Satsuki is. “Come on, Momoicchi, I guess I’m only giving _you_ a lift today.”

“Wait, I didn’t mean _up the mountain_ \-- “ He makes to run towards them, but Kise has already taken off, leaving him choking on dust. “Kise, get the hell back here!”

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko rubs his neck, turning towards Kagami. “Well, what do you think, Kagami-kun?”

“I don’t want to carry Ahomine.”

Aomine sighs, counts to five, and displays his best imitation of Kise’s puppy eyes. “ _Please_ , Kagami?”

“...I want to carry you even _less_.”

In the end, though, he relents, and they arrive at the viewing spot only moments after Kise. As Kuroko unpacks their breakfast -- probably hardboiled eggs again, Aomine thinks with a sigh -- he tries to reason with Kise.

“I’m not falling for that, Aominecchi!”

“Sorry?”

“Hmph.”

“Can you two stop arguing for even _five_  seconds,” Kagami growls, indicating at the touch of pink on the horizon. “Sun’s coming up.”

It rises slowly, surely, coloring the distant clouds with hues of purple and pink and gold. The first rays peek through, then the next, and suddenly the bright yellow of the sun greets them. Satsuki claps her hands together in excitement. “Look at it!”

“It’s just the sun,” Aomine grumbles. In the next moment he notices his collar is on fire. “Holy shit, what the -- “

“It’s your pendant, Aomine-kun.”

“Oh.” He swallows his last comment, reaching for the shimmering scale, the light reflecting off it brighter than any flame he has seen before. It even seems to set the trees beside them aflame. When Aomine touches it, hesitantly, he only feels the smooth coolness that he’s always felt before. A longing that is still there. “Right. I’ve just ... never seen it do this before.”

“That’s because you never wake up early enough,” Kuroko puts in, though he too is drawn to the dancing colors. “This is fascinating. Kagami-kun, can your fur do the same thing?”

“My wha?”

“Um, guys,” Kise whispers, jerking a finger towards the horizon. “I think we’ve got company.”

“Always attracting unwanted attention, aren’t you, Aomine?”

“Shut up, Bakagami.” He stares at where Kise’s pointing, but all he gets is the sun in his eyes. “Wait. I don’t see anything? Are you just messing with me, Kise?”

“I swear there _was_ something,” Kise begins, before his eyes widen and he puts a hand over his mouth. Beside him, Aomine can feel the shuffle of his companions scrambling out of the way. “Oh. _Oh_.”

“Kise? Oh fuck, it’s behind me, isn’t it?”

“Er...“

“Don’t turn around,” comes a mellifluous voice straight out of his memory. Aomine freezes, his senses kicking into overdrive. He knows this aura; he would know it anywhere. Out of the corner of his eye he spots Kagami making to approach, but is stopped by Kuroko tugging on his sleeve. “Ah, I apologize. Did I scare you?”

“No,” Aomine says, finally breathing. He can feel an arm snaking around his waist, and the familiar scent of freshwater, just-melted snow. _I will see you again_ , the voice had echoed through occasional nights over the past years. He reaches up to pinch himself, if this were some terrible dream, and finds that there is already something there. This time the instant of pain is welcome as he puts his own hand over Himuro’s, the smile on his face only growing wider as he turns around. “Not at all.”

**Author's Note:**

> well um i hope this was enjoyable??? i just wanted something feel-goodsy and it just exploded in my face i guess  
>  ~~god i hope i didnt completely fuck it up~~
> 
> notes;
> 
> \- The biwa, also known as a Japanese lute, is an instrument that was introduced from China and later modified.  
> \- Kuroko is an [onmyouji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onmy%C5%8Dd%C5%8D#Onmy.C5.8Dji).  
> \- [Mutsu no Kuni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutsu_Province) is an old province of Japan in the north of Honshu.  
> \- Mount Osore (Osorezan) is a mountain in Aomori Prefecture, believed to be the site of the entrance to Hell. (There aren't any mountains like this in Akita I could find & Aomori borders Akita s o o o let's just pretend lol.)  
> \- The [Nihon Ryouiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Ry%C5%8Diki) is Japan's oldest collection of Buddhist setsuwa (spoken stories, which include folklore, myths and anecdotes.) The first book has 35 chapters and does not include the story I made up for this fic.  
> \- Heian-kyo is the old name for Kyoto.  
> \- The four guardians are Byakko (White Tiger of the West), Seiryuu (Azure Dragon of the East), Suzaku (Vermillion Bird of the South) and Genbu (Black Tortoise of the North.) Coincidentally Seiryuu is specifically the guardian of Kyoto.  
> \- Makahadoma is the last layer of the eight 'Cold Hells' of Buddhism.  
> \- Mount Hiei is another much-storied mountain of Japan, located near Kyoto.


End file.
